early ship/diplo exploring

[ramses II.]

Supposed I've found a far away city. What should it build first?
My answer: A trireme and two spies. I rush build them. Your investment will pay itself.
Send the ships with the diplos along the coast line until you can see another island/continent. Sometimes it's useful to send them to the poles. The diplos will "collect" goody huts and find new techs, gold, units, settlers, cities. They work as a team. Try to open the huts in that way that the diplo has one move left, if possible.
If you find a band of barbs, you can "convince" up to three of them that life in your empire is more amusing ... NONE-Units. Normally they can kill the rest of the barb gang. If not, one or two of them will survive, at least one diplo, too
The surviving units will continue to explore the poles, islands and continents. They help you to contact other civs if you didn't manage to get Marco Polo's.
I had had games where a diplo found 5 or more cities, 3 to 6 units and more than 500 gold.
And theres another reason to take diplos: If another civ declares war, a diplo can bribe, too ...
In one of my last games I was at war with the English and I could bribe Oxford. That city had just completed the Statue of Liberty.

Guess what the bribed city builds first ...

[Marquis de Sodaq]

A fine strategy thru the entire game, not just in the early years! Later, once all huts are gone, you can still go fishing for AI units and barbarians. In particular, I like to bribe AI ships when possible. That keeps them off the seas for a while. Barbarians are still the best, of course - especially when you capture the leader to pay for the bribe you just paid.

[Ming]

Another great thing to do is to build a diplo in a costal city early in the game the minute you get writing. With any kind of luck, barbs will show up and you can bribe their ship, avoiding having to take map making vs more important early sciences...

[rah]

Yes, it's nice when that works.
And then there's the barbs unload, you bribe ship, barbs destroy city that the ship attached too.

[Thoth]

Originally posted by rah
Yes, it's nice when that works.
And then there's the barbs unload, you bribe ship, barbs destroy city that the ship attached too.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who's done that.

Bribe land units first. then the boat.

[rah]

Originally posted by Thoth




Glad to see I'm not the only one who's done that.

Bribe land units first. then the boat.

I will try to do that, but it requires haven't enough money for both, at least one single barb so it's bribable, sitting on a 1 movement terrain square so you have a movement point to still grab the ship. Or it requires two dips. Real early in the game, resources (like gold) are usually not adaquete for both.

If the king unloads, and I'm got at least a 2 defensive unit on good terrain, I'll sometimes let them attack to get a crack at the king.

RAH

[Thoth]

If I don't have enough money for both the land units and the boat, I'll let the boat go. Another one will be along soon enough.

Getting a boat quickly doesn't seem worth the risk of losing a city, a diplomat and the newly bribed boat. Nowdays I'll wait for a better chance unless I'm certain I can successfully defend against the land barbs.

[War4ever]

even better is surviving the attack.....and using your bribed boat to nail a king along the coast....AND getting vet status for it...now that is a good investment...

yes, nothing like losing the damm boat when the city is destroyed....nice political blunder your empire will never let you forget hahaha

i guess it really comes down to what was dropped off from the boat....

[rah]

Originally posted by War4ever
even better is surviving the attack.....and using your bribed boat to nail a king along the coast....AND getting vet status for it...now that is a good investment...

yes, nothing like losing the damm boat when the city is destroyed....nice political blunder your empire will never let you forget hahaha

i guess it really comes down to what was dropped off from the boat....

Yes, nailing the king with the boat to make it a vet early in the game is FANtastic. I usually remember to unload the boat before attacking. Don't laugh, I once lost a ship attacking a dip on a mountain.

Fortunately there are ways to make the empire forget.

RAH

[War4ever]

by the time i get that damm boat bribed...i usually do something stupid with it like moving it one too many squares in to open water..or worse yet.... i have the captain of the Valdez on board....drunk and fast asleap which means usually missing the dock and ramming into some port of call only to wash up on the shores with a broken and unfixable boat...

there are ways to make the empire forget your costly errors...but its still a national tragedy when it happens

[Scouse Gits]

Your empires have a "Freedom of Information Act"

In the (totally unlikely ) event of such a thing happening - the only possible response within my empire would be, "What Trireme? What City?"

[War4ever]

Originally posted by Scouse Gits
Your empires have a "Freedom of Information Act"

In the (totally unlikely ) event of such a thing happening - the only possible response within my empire would be, "What Trireme? What City?"

No wonder you like ICS..... you must be one of those generals who has no qualms about sending young men into the slaughter How do you inform the widows you create

[Marquis de Sodaq]

Originally posted by War4ever
How do you inform the widows you create

"He is now stationed in city 213:A. You are happy with this. That is all you need to know."

[Scouse Gits]

Spies - Traitors!!!
The content of all Imperial Mail - particularly that to the relatives of our brave fighting men and women - is a closely guarded State Secret. Which treacherous dog has allowed a copy of letter 73/T/VD to fall into your hands? Name him immediately - he has just won $2,500,000 in the State Lottery and a large dacha just outside city 198:C!

[Scouse Gits]

Who says that Crusaders cannot take a walled city garrisoned by Riflemen? You just need a lot of Crooks!